Adding WiFi to your health care complex is a smart move for a lot of reasons, and many of them are related to finances and productivity. In-clinic WiFi encourages visitors to hang around, spending more money, while giving your staff new ways to get work done while on the move between patients.
However, there's another element to offering WiFi in doctors offices that's often overlooked: Its impact on the patient experience. WiFi makes for happier, more satisfied patients -which is reflected in their HCAHPS scores- as well as potentially even improving patient outcomes!
Here are some ideas we've seen, or heard people considering, for using WiFi for improving the patient experience.
Surely, the worst aspect of patient recuperation is being stuck in bed with little to do. Daytime soap operas may not actually hinder recuperation, but it's hard to imagine them actually helping, or distracting from surgical pains.
On the other hand, a laptop or tablet computer with a WiFi connection gives patients a world of options to keep themselves occupied -and therefore distracted- during their convalescence. While to our knowledge no specific studies have been done in this area, it only stands to reason that a patient who is least upset by their time spent bedridden is one that's likely to recuperate faster.
It's easy, through modern network OSes, to send “push notifications” to anyone connected to your network. It's a good way to send reminders, like letting patients know a nurse will be around in a few minutes with their next round of meds. It's also less intrusive than a phone call, and won't wake a sleeping patient.
One of the major focuses of the HCAHPS study is on patient education and familiarity with their medical needs. By and large, those with the best patient communications had significantly higher scores, as well as lower re-admission rates.
If your patient already has a computer of some sort by their bedside, load it up with documents and educational materials!
Or a dedicated practice – such as a private oncology clinic – might even consider investing in custom mobile apps specifically to help walk patients through the process in a friendly and nonthreatening way.
If you already have HDTVs in your practice, a WiFi network and some Google Chromecasts will vastly expand your TV offerings without any ongoing costs besides bandwidth. These little devices, $35 or less, turn an HDTV into a streaming media center. They could eliminate your monthly cable-TV bill, while being far more entertaining for patients.
When you use a virtualized network architecture, one where the OS and the network are effectively the same thing, it's simple to add apps that “live” on the network and are accessible to any user.
You could, for example, incorporate a chatroom where patients can talk among themselves from their recovery rooms. It's certainly not the same as being in the same room as someone, but with everyone confined to private beds, it can do a lot to ease the loneliness of the hours. Audio or video-based chatrooms are also a possibility, although they require significantly more bandwidth.
More enterprising organizations could even add games, media libraries, educational tools, or virtually any other app that might make the recuperation process more enjoyable. Since patients are bringing their own devices, this is far less expensive than, say, trying to put an X-Box in every room.
WiFi in health care centers makes a lot of sense, for plenty of reasons. When looking at the financial, productive, and patient-specific benefits, it's a great all-around investment for any medical facility.
Hummingbird can make it happen! Contact us today for a free consultation!